I wrap my arms around her waist.
“Okay,” I say. I draw in a deep breath. “Okay.”
“No takebacks this time,” Georgia warns.
Her words send a little fissure of panic through me. I stamp down on it, though. There’s no more room for that.
“No takebacks,” I say.
A beautiful smile spreads across Georgia’s lips.
“Good,” she breathes. “Now, what do you want?”
Her hands brush against my spine and her hips jerk suddenly against mine. I gasp aloud and tighten my own grip on her.
There’s only one answer to that. I lean in close and hover over her lips.
“You,” I say.
And when our lips crash together, I finally let go. There’s no more fighting. This was my last attempt to give Georgia a better life, and she still chose me.
Now it’s time to finally give her what we both want.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Georgia
I remember playing video games with Ethan when we were younger. We would sit in front of that screen, directing the character through each level, and I remember being amazed at the levels of story. Each time we turned around, we faced larger and larger challenges, each one becoming more d
ifficult to overcome as we got further into the game.
Finally, at the end of the game, we faced the final boss, the largest and most difficult of all the tasks we had completed before now. On one particular game, it took us weeks of constant attempts before we finally won, laughing and cheering. It had been thrilling.
Somehow, I feel like that now. I’ve been fighting against Ethan, my love for him, and everything that has been in our way for over ten years. When he married Polly, I remember believing that I had lost the biggest battle of my life, only to have that path opened a year later when she left him.
Each step of the way it became more and more difficult to keep going. In the last few weeks, problem after problem has been thrown at us, forcing us to fight back as hard as we could, sometimes together, and sometimes against one another.
Yet, now…
It feels like it did back then, when we won that final boss battle. I feel a huge sense of achievement, removing a weight that I feel like I’ve carried around forever as Ethan kisses me. Somehow, I’ve finally broken through to him, and found the weakness that would make him admit how much he loves me.
It feels amazing.
I know this isn’t the end. There’s still going to be problems. As far as I know, Polly still looms over us. I still need to tell him I’m not actually leaving, and why. There are going to be days when Ethan’s insecurities flare up, and when I can’t believe that this is real after ten years of seemingly futile waiting. We have to sit down and talk about all this.
But that will be the future. Together, Ethan and I can smash through all those barriers, I’m sure of it. If we can get to this point, where we can tell each other what we want for ourselves and each other, then we can cope with anything else that gets thrown at us.
I raise myself on my toes and deepen the kiss. Ethan’s arms are wrapped securely around me, so I slip my hands under the hem of his shirt, splaying my hands over his toned stomach. I can feel the way his breathing speeds up as he chest rises and falls, and I’m pressed so close that I can feel his racing heartbeat, beating in time with mine.
We pull back, lips red and sore from the pressure and breathe, staring at each other, Ethan’s fingers play against my spine and my back arches automatically in response.
“Bed,” I breathe.
Ethan doesn’t argue. We start moving down the hall, but I can’t stop myself from latching onto Ethan’s neck, tasting the salt of his skin and breathing in the musk of cologne he must have put on for the party. I recognize the scent; it’s the same cologne I bought him for Christmas last year. The knowledge makes heat curl and flare in my stomach, and I bite down as we stumble toward his open bedroom door. Ethan hisses at the feeling.
“Shit,” he groans. “We’re going to run into the wall.”
I bite again just to be contrary, and Ethan pushes us through the doorway. He pulls me up and attacks my lips with another kiss. I feel myself moving backward, but I don’t know where, exactly, we are in the room until my knees hit the bed and I fall backward, dropping onto the soft mattress. I grip Ethan’s shirt and pull him down with me, forcing him to slide in between my thighs and brace himself over me, before tugging the shirt upward and over his smooth muscles.